You're Stealing My Heart Like A Gypsy
by screamingintosilence
Summary: "Hazel eyes locked with mine." We meet our favorite group of misfits in college after a night of birthday shenanigans of one Mike Wheeler. Who's the girl in the corner booth, and Benny's back? Please R&R. AU, no powers, modern day, college aged fic.
1. Sipping Coffee in a Corner Booth

**Disclaimer: The Duffer Brothers and the cast of Stranger Things are genius. I am not one of them. Do not own anything but the plot.**

 **Currently Mature strictly for language.**

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"Dustin, what the fuck did you fuckers do to me last night?" I groaned with my head down on the cafe table. It felt like my brain was full of lead and I was having severe trouble remembering anything past the first bar we went to last night.

It's a good thing I knew my best friends well enough that I didn't need to see them to know they were smirking at me. Assholes.

"We only did as much as you told us you wanted to do," Dustin retorted, chipperly. "It's not our fault you don't hold your liquor for a young, strapping lad of 21." How he didn't have an ounce of a hangover, I was baffled.

Sticking my middle finger up in his direction, I mumbled back, "Well whose fault is it for always making me the DD all these years?"

"Hey man," Lucas cut in, "It's not our fault that you always offered. You're the stick in the mud that doesn't want to let loose. Besides, we bought all your drinks last night _and_ we're even buying you a recovery breakfast."

"Get that self-satisfied smirk off your face, asswipe."

"Nope, never. This is my favorite moment. I need to cherish it because this may never happen again in our lifetime. Michael Finn Wheeler got so drunk that he can't remember anything and is now experiencing one of nature's worst feelings, the hangover." He was definitely doing that obnoxious thing with his hands where he frames his words.

"I'm going to find the best picture from last night and have it blown up and framed so we shall never forget the epicness," Dustin added.

Some best friends. Thank god at least Will was a bit of a light weight. He sat next to me, holding the glass of ice water to the side of his head. "Could you guys keep it down? Mike isn't the only one suffering from how loud you are," Will whimpered.

"Aw, Will. We're barely talking above our normal volume," Dustin was probably giving his stupid apologetic puppy dog eyes to Will. No one liked upsetting Will because for some reason he was basically the most pure in nature of all of us. He put up with us and all our shit for 15 years now. It felt like upsetting your dog.

"Your normal volume is loud. This doesn't help," he deadpanned back to them.

How the three of them thought of the brilliant idea to take me out for my 21st birthday and get me completely hammered, I have no idea. Me, the designated light-weight, who drank like maybe one beer a month at most. And what did these so called friends of mine do when we arrived at the bar? Ply me with tequila shots. I tried to vote for a night in with pizza and Xbox, but they vetoed me, claiming "rite of passage" or some bullshit.

Well, joke will be on them this morning because I made sure to order the largest, greasiest breakfast this cafe had to offer, and they had to pay every cent. Ha, dipwads.

Of course, it was at this precise moment that it felt like a nail had been shot through my head. The waitress, probably in her mid-30s, plunked my giant breakfast plate in front of me, smirking as she put down everyone else's plates and walked away. I glared at her back, knowing she knew full well what she did to me. Everyone's need to be a dick to the birthday boy was getting old.

As I sat there, head barely being held up with one hand as I struggled to shovel the behemoth of a breakfast into my mouth, my mind began to wander. Even holding my fork up was this massive undertaking. Maybe if I just placed my head on the plate, or even next to it, it would be easier. Is that sort of thing frowned upon in public? Probably, but I've never had a hangover and it was starting to sound like a more and more appealing idea.

Another hypothetical nail was driven through my skull as Dustin's phone began to ring.

"Guys! It's Steve! He wants to Facetime us. Must want to wish you a happy birthday, Mike!" Dustin had this weird bromance thing with my older sister's ex-boyfriend from high school. I can't remember how it happened exactly but they somehow formed a bond during our eighth grade year, and Steve became Dustin's surrogate dad/brother. We didn't really question it, since Dustin definitely needed someone after his dad left him and his mom behind. At least Steve and Nancy, my sister, split on good terms - otherwise I'm pretty sure he would have hated me.

"Well hello kidlets!" I heard come through the speakers. "Wheeler! Congrats on being the first one to become fully an adult!" Steve gave me this weird salute, bow thing through the screen. "How is it that you are the first to turn 21 of this mess and you're the most light-weight?" he laughed.

I just stuck my middle finger up in the general direction of the phone, words being too hard to come by feeling as shitty as I was. I decided to enact my plan of putting my face on level ground with my plate and commence the shovelling of food.

"Geez, Dustin. What the hell did you do to the kid?" Steve was still enquiring.

Dustin was trying his hardest to not bust up laughing as I sent him my most chilling death glare. It would have probably been much more effective if I wasn't struggling to make the eggs and pancake go into my mouth and not onto the table.

"Man, you should have seen him last night Steve!" Lucas exclaimed. "We gave him like 4 shots of tequila and this boy was _out_." Lucas was trying to keep from crying with how much he was laughing over my misery. "We could tell he was blacked out, but you can't end a birthday on 4 shots of tequila from the first bar! Just like you told us! So we took him around to a few others and just sat him in a chair with a beer in his hand. Straight miracle he didn't end up on the floor." He was howling at this point with laughter with Steve cracking up on the other side of the screen.

 _Royal fuckers_ , I thought as I continued on my journey through this ginormous plate. Thank heaven for Benny and his cafe. Best breakfast and burgers in this small college town. Everyone always said that Benny's food could cure hangovers. I was finally experiencing that miracle first hand. With half my plate finally gone, I felt like I could actually hold my head up without thinking of how herculean a task it was.

As my mind started to clear up a bit, and I was finally able to tune out the guys chatter (15 years being around them gives one that special talent), I let my eyes wander around the quaint, relatively quiet, cafe. I say relatively quiet since wherever Lucas and Dustin are, _especially_ together, there was no such thing as quiet.

It was early enough in the day on a Saturday for there not to be many patrons. There was a night football game that night, so most people were still sleeping in, recovering from the night before. _What I wish I was doing_. We'd most likely be going to the game, because while Will and I could care less about sports, Lucas and Dustin were semi interested - _thanks, Steve -_ and there wasn't much else to do in a small college town on a Saturday night.

My eyes continued their perusal of the people in the cafe when that came to an abrupt end. My heart started pounding. In the corner booth, surrounded by three open textbooks, seven others stacked to her left, and another book which looked like a novel open in her hands, was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.

Maybe it was the hangover, or the way the sun was filtering through the window to land on her just right. Maybe it was the way she dropped the strand of honey brown hair she was twirling between her fingers to finish off her cup of coffee, or the way she raised the mug in the air once it was empty to signal to Benny that she needed a refill, all without taking her eyes off the pages in front of her. This girl was the most breathtaking thing I had ever beheld.

I saw Benny make his way over to her at her signal and fill her cup the whole way. I heard soft murmurs of what seemed to sound like, "That's your third one this morning, J. Either you slow down or I'll cut you off for the rest of the time you're here today." "B! You can't! Coffee is my lifesource!" "Well, maybe make some actual food your lifesource, yeah J?" "Fine B. Bring me whatever. Just leave me to my work." "You haven't been doing work for the past hour. You've only been reading that book," Benny huffed while finally turning and walking away with a roll of his eyes like a battle lost.

I saw her, this J, glance up at Benny's retreating back with a smirk before her eyes shot over to mine. I felt like the air had been stolen right out of my lungs. She raised one of her brows and gave me this small smile that seemed to include me in on her inside joke, before her eyes fell back down onto the book in front of her as her other hand resumed twirling that beautiful brown lock.

Feeling the air rush back into my lungs, I saw out of the corner of my eye Will looking at me. He glance in the direction I was looking, at the girl and then back to me. When I finally turned my eyes toward him, his eyes were wide and he was giving me this crazy, scheming grin and then gave me a small shove.

This, of course, caused Dustin and Lucas to focus their attention back onto me.

"What's up with Mike? Why's he looking all dazed and confused?" Dustin asked.

"Gentlemen. Our leader, our great paladin, has just been pierced with Cupid's arrow," Will laughingly grinned while mimicking shooting an arrow at me.

"Keep your voices down!" I whispered, panicked that she might hear us.

Naturally this prompted Dustin and Lucas to maniacally start looking about the cafe, trying to spot her. Once they saw her in the corner, Dustin let out a loudly whispered "Oh!" as Lucas let out a low whistle. They both turned to look at my bright red face. Can't believe I have to put up with these shitheads as friends. I chanced a glance to the corner and saw the girl, _J_ , smirking while looking at her book. Very low chance she didn't hear anything my shit friends said. If God could just melt me on the spot, that would be fantastic.

"What's happening?!" Steve yelled from the phone. Good lord, would the embarrassment never cease?!

"Oh, shit! Sorry, Steve," Dustin replied to the phone. "We got a situation here involving the birthday boy and someone of the opposite sex." A wink, Dustin? Really? I rolled my eyes. "I'll call you later man. We have to do some quick reconnaissance for our party member."

"Ok. Well, heads up. Your nerd is showing!" Steve laughed as he hung up. I was hoping to be vaporized by some alien life form any moment now so that this girl wouldn't be able to put a face on this horribly embarrassing moment called my life.

I glanced once more at her to see that she was looking my way with her bottom lip between her teeth, looking like she was trying not to laugh. _Why me? Why today of all days, when I especially look like shit?_

Will prodded me once more. Looking at him, he nodded his head in her direction. "Go talk to her!"

"Are you insane?" I whispered back, harshly.

"Mike! Number one rule is that if you can get her to smile, she'd at least be willing to talk!"

"Says who?"

"Says me, right now! Listen to your old friend, Will the Wise." Dick.

"You can't claim expertise just because you're gay and are able to make a guy like you at the drop of a hat!" I'm exasperated. The one person who is usually on my side with everything has betrayed me to the dark side. I knew we shouldn't have let him watch all his favorite movies lately. It puts him in his feels about couples he thinks should be together.

This only leads to him wanting to force people together in real life. And with my slip up, he'll be able to get Dustin and Lucas on his side.

Speaking of, they start kicking me beneath the table as Will resumes his shoving.

"Will you assholes cut it out?!" I mutter angrily, trying to get them all to stop.

"The only way we'll cut it out is if you go and talk to her!" Lucas retorted.

"That's peer pressure!"

"So it is. Now go talk to her, numbnuts."

I rolled my eyes in response. "I look like absolute dog shit right now, thanks to you fuckers. I can't possibly talk to her looking like this."

"Hey! Don't insult dogs like that!" Dustin jumped in.

Will turned to me while forcing me to fully face him. "Well, there's nothing to do about your face." "What?!" "But we can maybe help with the hair."

"Here, I got it," Lucas said, jumping at the chance to attack my head. After a minute or so of trying to beat my hair into submission - _yeah right -_ Lucas took a step back, gave a grimace, and then a reluctant nod. "That's all I can do for him."

"Perfect," Will responded while wrestling me out of my chair.

"What are you doing?!"

"Go talk to her! You are starstruck. It will leave us to at least finish our breakfast in peace without looking over to see you drooling."

"Hey!" With that, he shoved me halfway from our table to this girl's.

Having run out of options, I made my way over to where she was sitting, shuffling my shoes the last few feet. Glancing up, I saw that her eyes were firmly fixed on the book in front of her with her finger still working that strand of hair.

Looking at all her books strewn across her table, and at the way the sunlight was hitting her, I couldn't seem to get my mouth to work.

After what seemed like an eternity, with my mind still blank, I finally stammered out "Uh, h-hi. Um, el-eleven."

Hazel eyes locked with mine.

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 **A/n: Please, please review! They truly do help! I haven't written anything in many years, aside from the other ST fic I wrote two days ago. My writing has changed a lot, so I would love feedback!**

 **The second chapter is currently being written and will hopefully be done soon!**

 **Also, yes I made Mike's middle name Finn. If anyone knows if they ever reference his character's real middle name in the show yet, please feel free to let me know!**

 **Thank you lovelies, xo.**


	2. I Was Laughing at Your Stack of Books

**Disclaimer: Still not in anyway affiliated with Stranger Things, much to my chagrin**

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 _Shit._ I sounded like such an idiot then.

"Eleven?" _Oh my God, ok. She's responding. Ok, calm your shit, Wheeler._ Her eyebrow was raised, head tilted to the side, lock of hair still firmly wrapped around her finger.

"Uh, uh. Yeah. Like y-you have el-eleven books there. That-that's quite an undertaking for, um, a, uh, a Saturday morning in-in Hawkins," I manage to stammer out with my arm up, scratching the back of my head, trying to play it cool like all the guys in movies I've seen.

Her eyes still looked confused, eyebrow still quirked, with a smile slowly starting to form on those perfect bow-shaped lips. She was like a fairy goddess sitting here, indiscreetly, in the corner booth of Benny's Cafe.

"I-I, I just mean that, um. I just am surprised anyone would lug eleven books around on a weekend."

"Oh!" Her face opened into a laugh. _Angels, I swear._ " _That_. I have a paper and a couple of exams next week in three different classes. Figured I would force myself to do all of it by bringing all the books with me," she looked sheepishly at the books around her and then at her laptop that was still in her bag on the floor by her feet.

I gave her a small chuckle. "And is that," nodding to the book in her hands, "one you have a test on? Some English class reading?"

Blushing even further and letting the book close over her thumb, "Not-not really. More like a personal reading book on a self-made syllabus for myself this year," she gave a shy smirk. "While Tolkien is a genius, _Return of the King_ isn't on any class syllabus, as much as I would wish it would be."

Geez, this girl reads _Lord of the Rings_. It's like after 21 years of always being this loser and nerd has finally paid off to have her in front of me.

"Well," I remarked while glancing at my watch, "I'd say you have a solid two hours before Benny's gets crazy."

"Yeah," she gave a slight huff. "That's why I usually go to the library after." I liked the way her eyes crinkled when she grinned.

"With eleven books in tow?"

"Well, that's what my bike is for," she explained while pointing out the window to my right. I could see a teal blue bike, one of those classic style ones that came back to being really popular lately. It had a basket on the front as well as a pair of overhanging ones on the back tire. "When there aren't morning games, or when football is over, I like to come to Benny's for a bit. He's friends with my dad, so he usually feeds me, and supplies my coffee addiction for free," the side her mouth tilted up in amusement.

"I can see how that would definitely be a perk in college."

"Oh, for sure."

I stood there awkwardly with my hands in my pockets, not really sure what to say. My weakness of being socially inept rearing it's ugly head at the most inopportune moment. Speaking of.

"Yo, Wheeler," I heard Dustin's voice yell from behind me. Turning to him, I saw him make a wrap-it-up gesture with his hand. "We gotta go! I promised my mom I'd feed Tews for her before we went pre-gaming. And Will's going on about some run he said you guys wanted to get in. _And_ you promised to get us the beers, birthday boy."

"Hold. On." I gritted through my teeth as I made a threatening gesture back "One more second!"

Turning back to her, face fully flushed from my friends being Grade A wingmen, I gave her a small smile and a nervous chuckle. She looked like she was trying really hard not to laugh.

Blushing even further with overwhelming embarrassment, I managed to get out a "Well-" before she chimed in.

"Well, Michael Wheeler, it was very nice talking to you."

"Uh, yeah. Same. Uh, could I get- could I get your number?" God, could I sound any more presumptuous? I said like ten words to her and am already pulling that line?

I saw her shake her head and felt my stomach drop. _Way to go Wheeler. Barely five minutes in and you already screwed up._ But then she did something I didn't expect at all, she held her phone out to me.

"You can give me your number, how about that?" her eyes sparkled.

"Uh, sure! Absolutely," I answered, flustered. I quickly typed in the tiny digits and almost fumbled her phone back to her. "So, I'll talk to you later then?" I ask, hopeful.

"Do you believe in fate, Michael Wheeler?" she responded cryptically.

"Um, sure, I guess," my eyebrows bunched together.

She just nodded her head back to me before opening her book back up, eyes scanning to see where she had left off.

 _Ok, weird,_ I thought to myself as I turned to walk away. "Wait, I never got your name," I whipped back around to face her.

Her hazel eyes, full of mystery, snapped up to meet mine. "Fate, Michael Wheeler. Fate." Her voice was quiet, like a breath of air. She resumed twisting her shoulder length hair around her forefinger, while giving me that small, secret grin again.

"How did you even know my name?" My brain felt muddled in confusion.

Her finger paused and she looked pointedly me and then at a spot behind me. When I turned to glance at the spot, I could see all my friends practically _bouncing_ on the balls of their feet and looking our way.

I could feel my face redden in mortification. "Ah. Yeah, they are pretty loud."

She just gave me a reassuring smile, tilted her and shrugged.

"You can call me Mike, you know, instead of Michael. No one calls me Michael besides my mom," I pointed out as I stared at my feet. Being vaporized on the spot was sounding spectacular at the moment.

"Mike," she tested it out, looking contemplative, like she was debating if she like the way it sounded. She finally nodded after a few seconds. "Ok."

"Well… I should probably get going. These guys aren't really known for being patient."

"WHEELER!" I heard Dustin screech behind me. I stuck my finger up at him as she let out a laugh and a small nod.

"Uh, see you around, I guess?"

"Fate. Goodbye Mike," she replied with a small wink I almost missed and then returned to her coffee and reading.

It felt like my heart swooping in my chest as I stumbled my way back over to the three of my friends.

"You look like a lovestruck puppy," Will remarked when I reached them. My eyes shifted to him, my voice still gone from the encounter I just had.

They dragged me out of the cafe laughing and hollering about "Mike Wheeler likes a girl" or some shit.

As we lumbered past the window she was sitting in, I couldn't help but to glance at her once more. I saw her give a quick glance, a coy smile, and a tiny wave with her fingers. Man, I was beyond starstruck.

I don't know about fate, but god. I had to see her again.

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 **A/N: I struggled with writing this because it was so hard for me to figure out what I wanted in this scene and what would be realistic first encounter, so sorry if the end feels a little abrupt. It is a lot shorter of a chapter, but that's because I just wanted to get started on the next one ;)**

 **Please leave a review, I greatly appreciate them! They truly keep me going when I feel like my story sucks.**

 **Thank you to salavibes, kirenk96, and the two anons that reviewed. I so very much appreciated the kind words!**

 **Thank you to all who have followed and favorited so far, I feel truly humble. And to all who have read, THANK YOU!**


	3. You Got All of My Attention

**Disclaimer: Still waiting on that call, Duffers. In the mean time, in between time, enjoy.**

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"So, you didn't even get her number?" Will asked on mile 2 of 4.

"N-no", I got out. He was barely breaking a sweat and here I was, gasping for air like a fish out of water.

"Or her name?"

"I already told y-you. No. Why-why are we running so far? This is dea-death."

"Like I told you, we have to balance out all the calories we drank last night. I have the marathon in a few months and you're the one who promised to train with me."

"On your short runs!"

"This is my short run!"

"This is torture! If these are your short runs, I'm doing all the training on my bike," I had been biking during Will's long runs to make sure he didn't run out of water. Dustin and Lucas weren't runners, and I had joined the cross country team and track in high school _because of Will_.

Back in middle school, Will had gotten really sick for a while. There were a couple times that we had been terrified that we might lose him. He had always been a sickly child, but it got worse in middle school with some serious infection. Thankfully he pulled through.

After going through all that, though, Will had decided he wanted to work on being healthy and making sure he'd be around for a long time. The doctors had recommended running for him, and he jumped at the option. Me, being his best friend that wasn't into sports that involved having contact with another sweaty, gross human being _(again, all Steve's influence)_ , decided that it was my responsibility to join him in his endeavour.

I'll be honest, I hadn't hated it. However, I did learn that: longer distances? Not my thing. Not my thing by a long shot. But Will has always been the best of the best of us, so when he decided this past summer that he wanted to do a marathon, guess who caved pretty quickly and agreed to help him train? Hence why I'm here, currently thinking about how he's actually the worst.

"This might be torture, Wheeler, but now you have a girl to impress," he laughed while slowing up his pace a little for me, making sure I wouldn't keel over.

This reminder served to make me suddenly feel extremely nauseous and I let out a loud groan. "Why do you have to remind me what a loser I am?"

"Hey! None of that. That's not what I'm saying at all. C'mon man. You play the guitar, you're tall, you have that whole _brooding musician_ look going with your hair, and you're the smartest one of us all," Will tried cheering me up.

"Dude, maybe I have those thing going for me in like a twisted, sucky way, yeah. Either way, you are forgetting that I'm the Dungeon Master for us for D&D. That makes me like, top nerd. And probably biggest loser in Eleven's eyes."

"Eleven?" Will looked lost.

Blushing and trying not to literally trip over my own two feet, "Uh, yeah. So it's the nickname I decided to give her. She didn't give me her real name and I can't continue to just vaguely call her _The Girl_ or whatever."

Rolling his eyes at me, Will quipped back, "Ok, but why eleven? Why not just _My Angel_ or _My Heaven and Stars_?" God, even my nicest friend was still an asshole.

"You know, if I wasn't afraid of falling, and not wanting to hurt you _because that's what good friends do_ ," he was laughing over me, "I'd push you over right now."

"Ha! In your dreams, Wheeler. Besides, you know I'm right! But ok, ok, in all seriousness, why _Eleven_?"

"Because," I let out a huge huff. Whether that was from not really being able to run and talk, or from mortification, I wasn't sure. "Because she had el-eleven books with her. Wa-water. Water," I signaled for him to hand over his water bottle, since mine had already run dry. Yeah, that was on me not hydrating correctly after last night.

Chuckling and passing the water my way, Will kept on, "Well that's weird." I shot him an incredulous look, trying very hard not to lose my pace in fear of landing on my face. "I meant, like in a cute way, I guess? More weird that she had that many books in a cafe, but no yeah, actually giving her that nickname is weird too, dude."

"Oh my god," I grumbled, swiping my hand over my face dripping in sweat. _I'm surprised it hasn't melted off yet. Are we done yet? This is agony._ "Well, I'd already settled on it, so too bad," I drank down half his water. "How much further?"

"One mile," he responded after a quick glance at his fitness tracker. "Race you to the library!" he gave a wiggle with his eyebrows.

"What?" not comprehending anything, just pain. He took off, practically sprinting. "Dipshit! Suck some dicks, Byers!" I yelled after him as I forced myself to pick up my pace.

"With pleasure!" he threw back over his shoulder. _Goddamnit_. Tapping into the use of my long limbs, I stretched to catch up with him.

As we sprinted the final bit across the quad, I was stuck 10 paces behind him. He was always way better at long distance anyway, I try and tell myself to feel better. We get to the side of the library where he finally stops in the grass. When I reach him, I find the nearest tree to puke a little bit at its base and then fall over in the ground, holding the stitch in my side.

"Never-never again, Byers," I gasp out between lungfuls of air. "I'm dying. This is death. My soul is leaving my body."

He had his hands on his knees, catching his breath, before he started walking around and doing his post-run stretches. He rolls his eyes at my over dramatic speech and kicks my foot. "You sound like Dustin, Mike. Calm your tits, you're fine."

"I'm not drinking for the rest of the year," I put one of my hands over my face to block out the sun.

"Ok, that I can believe," he chuckled back. "Man, you look like Scarlett O'Hara or some shit, lying like that."

"Who?"

This just caused him to roll his eyes so hard. "C'mon. Southern belle. _Gone With the Wind._ I made you guys watch it last year! It's a classic!" his hand were on his hips.

"Oh, c'mon Will," I whined. "You know I fell asleep 15 minutes in!"

"I need to stop trying to educated you uncultured swine."

"Not all of us have older brothers that are these huge film and art buffs!" I retort.

"You have Nancy," he wasn't buying it.

"Will, you've known Nancy for 15 years! When has she ever been able to convince me to do anything?"

"Ok, point taken," he finally conceded. "Back to Eleven or whatever her name is. How are you going to see her again?"

Somehow pulling myself up into a sitting position, I shot him a perplexed look. "Aside from stalking her out at Benny's next Saturday, your guess is as good as mine!"

"Well, you said she mentioned something weird about fate or whatever, right?" he noted.

I nodded the affirmative. "Yeah, I have no clue. She got all mysterious and whatnot. I don't know, man. She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, but what if she's one of the crazy ones?"

"She's not," Will reassured me.

"What? How do you know? You weren't even the one talking to her!" I squinted back at him. _Was he hiding something from me about secretly knowing her?_

Throwing his hands up in defense, he ventured with a grin, "You're right. But I've always been great with body language and spotting the red flags." I bobbed my head in agreement. "She didn't have the crazy eyes."

"What the hell are the crazy eyes? And how do you know what they look like?" I inquired.

"Remember Jennifer Hayes?" I nodded. "Remember when Troy broke up with her senior year and she went all crazy trying to get him back?" I nodded once more. "Well, she always had this look in her eyes - almost from the very beginning - like she had to potential to go awol. And look what happened!"

"Ok, ok, I see what you're saying. But how do you know someone for sure doesn't have the potential to be crazy?"

"C'mon Mike, be realistic. _Everyone_ has the potential to get broken and go off the edge. But the edge is different for everyone. What I'm saying is, those with _crazy eyes,_ well it's easy to see that their edge is basically in front of them, so to speak."

I slowly inclined my head in agreement as I realized what he meant. His advice and observation truly made me feel better about all this.

"Is it still weird that she seems hung up on fate? Sure. But until you get to really know her, _you_ shouldn't get hung up on it in turn."

I pondered over all this. "You sure you want to be an art major? You should be a therapist," I half jokingly tell him. He had always given us good advice, some of which we listened to and some of which we found out the hard way we _should have_ listened to. He was also the best one to just sit and talk with because he could tell when you just wanted someone to listen, or someone to respond.

"Art is where my heart lies," he shrugged it off. "Anyways," he quickly glanced at the time on his fitness tracker, "I'm going to hit some weights before heading back to the apartment, you in?"

"After what you just put me through?" I deadpanned back at him. "You're on your own, Byers. See ya." He walked off towards the gym that was a ways behind the library while giving me a wave goodbye.

Pulling myself to my feet, I attempted to stretch out my muscles a bit so I wouldn't be regretting it in a few hours. As I stood in the shadow of the library, Will's advice and thoughts of fate rolling around in my head. _Fate. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?_ I was so confused as to what to do, as to how to find Eleven again. I know the nickname was stupid, but it also just felt… right.

 _Fate. Fate. Fate._ Glancing up at the large building in front of me, it finally hit me. "The _library_ , of course. I'm such a fucking idiot," I berate myself. She had mentioned how she goes to the library after Benny's gets busy. _Dumbass. I am such a dumbass._

With new found determination, I do my best impersonation of a quick walk across the quad, back to the duplex apartment the guys and I shared.

When I finally reached the duplex, I shuffled my way around Dustin and Lucas who had already begun the festivities of drinking on the front lawn.

"Ya look like shit, Wheeler!" Dustin cackled as I passed.

"Hurry up and get your pansy ass out here!" Lucas yelled after me as I ignored them.

Thank god I had chosen the room on the first floor, because there was absolutely no way I could climb stairs right now. I slunk into the bathroom that Dustin and I shared, since he had taken the room in the basement while Lucas and Will had reign of the upstairs.

Taking the quickest possible shower I could, I stared at my reflection after toweling off. I grabbed some of Dustin's hair gel out of the medicine cabinet, determined to bring some semblance of tameness to my hair. Dustin has a hero worship thing with Steve, so when Steve had experimented with hair gel not too long ago, Dustin naturally tried to follow suit. I had messed around with his hair gel once before, but had thought it was too much work at the time.

Spending the next 20 minutes attempting to go for a classic slicked back look and realizing my hair was too long, I ended up with Kit Harrington's Jon Snow hair look, just not nearly as able to pull it off as the famous actor.

"I look like a fucking tool," I sighed at my reflection. Noting the time, I didn't have time to fix it, and rushed to my room to put on some jeans and a button down long sleeve. I knew she would probably be at the library by now since Benny's would be packed, but she hadn't said how long she'd be there.

As I was coming out of my room, folding up the sleeves of the shirt, Dustin was in the kitchen rooting around the fridge for a another beer. Closing the fridge door with said beer in hand, he turned to look at me.

The sight of me in all my glory almost caused him to completely drop his drink, "Holy shit." His mouth broke into a shit eating grin, "Going somewhere, pretty boy?"

Rolling my eyes and trying to get around him, I ran into Lucas. "Holy shit, Wheeler! What, did you shower in Dustin's hair gel or something?" His hands reached for my head.

Batting his hands away, I reached up trying to protect my 20 minutes of work, while Dustin looked on in laughter.

"So why are you all prettied up, Mike? We're just going to the football game," Lucas stated.

"Yeah, I'm not going," I grumbled.

"What? What do you mean you're not going? We always go!"

"I'm not going," I shrugged. I quickly explained the realization I had come to and how I was going to try and find Eleven at the library. I made sure to not mention the nickname I had given her though, because they would have ripped into me a hundred times more than Will already had done.

"I don't think that's fate, Mike. It's more like stalking," Lucas retorted while taking a sip of the new beer can Dustin had handed him.

I give him a hard eye roll. "Well what do you propose I do?"

"Not be a stalker."

Making an incoherent noise, I look to Dustin, signalling him for support.

"C'mon Sinclair, let him have this. You know we never let him have anything."

Lucas gave in, snorting and pointed at me, "Fine. But if this girl turns out to be crazy, I get to pester you for the rest of your life."

Man, today was the day of eye rolls. Sticking my middle finger up at him, I slipped on my shoes and grabbed my backpack so I had a viable reason to be in the library. "Don't get too wasted, yeah? You're only going to have Will with you guys, and while it's Will, he can't carry both of your drunk asses home from the stadium."

"Hey, we're not that bad," Dustin scoffed. I shot him a look and he threw up his hands. "Fine, fine, whatever you say, boss," he grinned with a salute.

"Whatever, weirdos," I waved at them as I headed out the door and down the porch.

I made my way back onto campus and across the quad, contemplating what I would say when I found her, _if I found her_. The guys could be right, and this could be a ridiculous plan, but she wouldn't have said that stuff about fate if she didn't mean anything by it, right?

Still feeling conflicted, confused and quite determined, I entered the library.

The library at Southern Tech was actually probably one of my favorite buildings on campus to look at. It wasn't huge by any means, since Southern Tech wasn't a large school, but the architecture was still a sight to behold. It was made up of three top floors and a sublevel floor. As you entered, it opened up into this atrium with a glass paned ceiling.

You could see the stacks which took up an entire half of the library, going from floor to ceiling. They were behind glass panels and divided into half floors so that there were really 8 floors of stacks for the 4 actual floors of the library.

The other half of the sublevel was taken up by small conference rooms that could be used when working on a group project, while the other side of the first floor housed the cafe and check out desk.

The rest of the second and third floors were taken up by the Grand Reading Room, which looked like something out of a _Harry Potter_ book. It was full of long tables and chairs, with table lamps dividing the seating every other chair. I figured that this was my best place to start looking for her.

Listening to my gut, I climbed the flight of stairs - _goddamn stairs_ \- and entered the space, my eyes scanning over all the tables. There weren't many people here, it being Saturday and a home game, so it didn't take long.

There, in the far back corner by the windows facing out to the quad, I saw a head of softly curled honey brown hair, a strand being twisted around a finger.

Taking a deep breath to try and calm my nerves, _yeah right_ , I strided towards her.

* * *

 **A/n: Ahhh, I loved writing major Byler!friendship interaction. I believe that with a supporting mom and older brother, and great friends, that Will would totally grow up to be a confidant heartthrob. I based him a bit off of one of my friends from college, sorry if anyone pictured him a different way.**

 **Inspiration for the library description came from Ohio State's Thompson Library, if anyone is interested. It's my alma mater and I loved this place. Note: It's a condensed version since the actual library is 12 floors.**

 **Please review, I love getting them! Any and all feedback is appreciated!**

 **Thank you once more to** **salavibes and kirenk96, as well as Nira and all the anons that left reviews! Made me so happy!**

 **Thanks again to all who have favorited and followed! Keeps me motivated :)**


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